Summit seems to be remiss in my youthful memories in eating bacon in melbourne from many, many years ago. Early morning Sundays...I remember pale pink rashers cut as thin as transparent, translucent tissue paper with dark brown bristle hairy rind as thick and tough as old leather boot laces that was extremely hard to fit in an ordinary frying pan... shaped like a large pink eyeball with a long thinner paler pink and white tail...crowd three rashers in the old beat up blackened oily pan and their was hardly any room for frying the googs...what a fecking dilemma for a young hungry inexperienced cook!... (which leads me to another point, when was the last time you saw a double yolker looking back up at you?!?...what a cause for celebration that was for some strange reason in our household!...seems like it was a regular happy occurrence when I was younger, anyways...) Once the drizzle/sizzle, smoke and aroma settled down and the frying bacon had shrunk, softened and shrivelled in undulating sized frills...then it was time and room for the googs in the pan! Get the silver soup spoon out and scoop up the frying bacon fat and drizzle the sizzle over the tops of the googs to cloud the bright quivering orange orbs with a pale film. Ahhh nothing beats that smell of frying, bubbling, rippling bacon, early morning...we loves our frying bacon don't we blah!...then topped by strong steaming coffee...mmmmhh...mouth watering...with wafts of singed darkened toast...tummy rumbling...yummmm... Then it was time to plate up and eat...tasty soft bacon covered in egg yolk...(where's the black cracked pepper?!?)...and not overly salty! Not salty! Nooooo! Now these days or rather Sunday mornings I find the supermarket sold bacon boring. No flavour...not even as tasty as the cooking bacon aroma...hard and tough when finally cooked...espesh the triple smoked...(shatters into a thousand pieces when managed to be cut by a steak knife!)...and salty! Did I mention salty?!? After eating several rashers I am gasping for water...not coffee...noooo not the coffee, not the coffee...noooo...but water...cool water, big glasses of water to quench my thirst. Every meal of bacon seems to me like a long hot journey across a burning hot desert...on my hands and knees, torn thin clothes, hairy and bearded, crawling past the occasional desert palm tree...desperate for water... All day I've faced a barren waste, Without the taste of water, Cool water, Old Dan and I with throats burned dry, And souls that cry for water, Cool, clear water... But wait there's more to tell! This morning I found another bacon to try! From Woolies called...The British Sausage Ham and Bacon...Australian made the British way...Traditional smoked back bacon made from Australian pork! Viola! After cooking the reddish rashes it was soft...tasty and where was the salt?!? What have they done to the salt?!? Salty old dog begone!  

I have similar sentiments, and will try this British stuff.

 

Here's something else to try, that I discovered recently while camping.    Canned corned beef.  First reaction, eww, smelly fatty stuff.  However, if you fry it like bacon, the fatty stuff renders away, and the beef crisps up and loosens into a shredded delicacy.  Excellent with those eggs and toast.

Edited January 1, 20233 yr by aussievintage

Meant to ask.  Where do Woolies keep this British sausage ham and bacon?  In the deli?  Or in those hanging sealed plastic packets down the cool aisle?

That was a BIG paragraph to read but why not have a crack at making your own? I made many a batch using both homemade and store bought cures and can tell you even if you just did a non smoked and simple sugar/salt dry brine it will blow your mind!

 

Just grab a slab of pork belly and away you go. Heaps of recipes online too.

 

My most recent batch was made using this stuff and it was probably the best bacon ive ever had.

 

https://www.bbqspitrotisseries.com.au/dr-jay-bacon-cure

8 minutes ago, tubularbells said:

That was a BIG paragraph to read but why not have a crack at making your own? I made many a batch using both homemade and store bought cures and can tell you even if you just did a non smoked and simple sugar/salt dry brine it will blow your mind!

 

Just grab a slab of pork belly and away you go. Heaps of recipes online too.

 

My most recent batch was made using this stuff and it was probably the best bacon ive ever had.

 

https://www.bbqspitrotisseries.com.au/dr-jay-bacon-cure

I always go big and hard....

24 minutes ago, aussievintage said:

Meant to ask.  Where do Woolies keep this British sausage ham and bacon?  In the deli?  Or in those hanging sealed plastic packets down the cool aisle?

 

29 minutes ago, aussievintage said:

I have similar sentiments, and will try this British stuff.

 

Here's something else to try, that I discovered recently while camping.    Canned corned beef.  First reaction, eww, smelly fatty stuff.  However, if you fry it like bacon, the fatty stuff renders away, and the beef crisps up and loosens into a shredded delicacy.  Excellent with those eaggs and toast.

https://www.esquire.com/food-drink/food/a53967/cooking-with-spam/

15 minutes ago, BLAH BLAH said:

https://www.esquire.com/food-drink/food/a53967/cooking-with-spam/

 

Yep, do that too.  Want to be decadent?  Make up some thick tempura batter, flour the slice of spam, and batter it generously, then fry.  Yumm...

It is easier to cook bacon in your oven. Line a baking tray with baking paper, then lay your rashers on top. Roast, fan forced, at 180C for about 5-10 min or until done to your liking. Be aware that once it starts to brown, it turns into a crisp very quickly, so you have to keep monitoring it. 

32 minutes ago, Keith_W said:

It is easier to cook bacon in your oven. Line a baking tray with baking paper, then lay your rashers on top. Roast, fan forced, at 180C for about 5-10 min or until done to your liking. Be aware that once it starts to brown, it turns into a crisp very quickly, so you have to keep monitoring it. 

Ever use an Air Fryer to cook these pesky strips of bacon?!?

I do not own an air fryer. It is basically a mini fan forced oven. The only advantage over the full sized oven is that it heats up quicker and might save you on power bills. However, for me I don't like gadgets that takes up space on my kitchen top when I already have another appliance that does the same thing. But yeah, it would work with bacon. 

2 hours ago, tubularbells said:

That was a BIG paragraph to read but why not have a crack at making your own? I made many a batch using both homemade and store bought cures and can tell you even if you just did a non smoked and simple sugar/salt dry brine it will blow your mind!

 

Just grab a slab of pork belly and away you go. Heaps of recipes online too.

 

My most recent batch was made using this stuff and it was probably the best bacon ive ever had.

 

https://www.bbqspitrotisseries.com.au/dr-jay-bacon-cure

 

 

Thanks for the link, Doug.

What happened to the other bacon thread?  Don't tell me it's been cancelled like everything else that's good in life...